DR. J. GIBB'S SEARCH

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 23, 27 July 1920, Page 8

DR. J. GIBB'S SEARCH

MINISTERS & MISSIONARIES FOR NEW ZEALAND THE TRANSPORT DIFFICULTY, (moil OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 20th May The Rev. Dr. James Gibb cmnc up from Edinburgh recently, and has been attending the iSynod of the Presbyterian Church of England, and the May meetings of the other ohurches. He has now returned North to the Scottish Assemblies at Edinburgh, and in June he will cross to Ireland for the Irish Assembly. At these ■gatherings Dr. Gibb hopes to secure some more men for duty in New Zealand. Of tho twenty home missionaries whom he came to the British Isles to seek, he ha? booked ten, and there are six or seven more almost decided upon. Of the twenty- ministers, he has so far found only five, . but there are five,more who are quite likely, and ho is in touch with more than a dozen other inquirers arid applicants. Dr. Gibb says he has not found his task an easy one. For every man he accepts he has turned down one, or even two, and since he accepts no man, whether minister or home missionary, without a personal interview, a good deal of travelling to and fro is involved. The men whom he has already secured are as far apart as London, Belfast, and Inverness. Further, Dr. Gibb is beginning to find that it is one thing to select church workers for New Zealand, and to cover the cost of their passage,out, but that it is quite another thing to arrange for passages in any out-ward-bound ships for some months to come. He had hoped to arrange for quite half-a-dozen to get away in July, but at present he has been able to secure passage for only one. The shipping companies are helping him to th^ir utmost power, and Sir Thomas Mackenzie is rendering him valuable help in this connection, and in other ways as well. "The High Commissioner," says Dr. Gibb, "is a friend indeed to his fel-low-countrymen, and eager, no matter at what cost or trouble to himself, to help every cause for the good of his country." After the Irish Assembly, Dr. Gibb's movements are -uncertain, but ha intends to keep ion at his task until he finds all the men he came Home to securo, and until he has completed arrangements for thuir passage to New Zealand.